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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Craftsman Molding for our not-so-little girl

Hello there! Once again, it has been awhile since I last posted. Trust me when I say, it's not for lack of projects! For about four weeks back in April/May my hubby and I took on the job of repainting our daughter's room. At first, we thought we would just paint the walls, as our almost 8 year-old didn't like her two-toned pink anymore.

She wanted something a bit more mature and indicated that she wanted her room to be turquoise. Well, since we had only painted her walls pink 3-4 years prior, I thought it would be best to pick a neutral paint color for the walls, and add the turquoise color, either by way of her bedding or accessories. My daughter was fine with that idea, and I felt good about the fact that I wouldn't need to repaint her walls in a couple years time. We decided upon a very light shade of gray. In fact, the color is Benjamin Moore's Marilyn's Dress, with more black added in to darker the gray a tad. I didn't want a gray with any undertones, so the make-up of Marilyn's Dress is literally white with some black added to it. This subtle shade of gray would compliment just about any accent color, especially turquoise.

Our daughter's room had a chair rail (in the photo above you can see where the chair rail was located), and I decided that I didn't want that up anymore, so my hubby tore it off the wall, and once that was down, I thought, "What better time then now, to update/change all the trim in the room." You see, all the woodwork in our home is stained a bright cherry color. Though, I still LOVE that cherry stain, I was ready for something different....something brighter. So, I convinced.. yes, convinced my husband that it was a good idea to replace all the moldings in my daughter's room to a white trim, baseboards included. It was also a great excuse to make "craftsman molding", which I have been drooling over ever since I read the post over at Thrifty Decor Chick, on how to make your own Craftsman molding. Here's what I'm talking about

My hubby bought all kinds of pine boards (1x4's), along with other lumber per the instructions provided at Thrifty Decor Chick for the door and closet, and then followed the DIY tutorial at Thrifty Decor Chick for the window. Tearing off all the trim around the window, door and closet, saved me a lot of time priming and painting over our existing trim. However, the interior of all the windows in our home are wooden, so I had sand, prime and paint over all the cherry stain, and lather, rinse and repeat for the door and closet door. Believe it or not, I applied two coats of stain-blocking primer, and then painted nearly 5-6 coats of paint just to cover the cherry stain. I used Benjamin Moore Advance in Semi-Gloss. It's an Alkyd-based paint, and is ideal for wood trim. It's super easy to work with and apply, but after this experience perhaps the coverage isn't that great. The color is Simply White. Though, I did have the folks at Aubuchon Hardware, add a bit more white to the Simply White formula, as it wasn't as bright as I had envisioned. I am so visual, it's not funny! Now I realize that I personally love the stark contrast of bright white against nearly anything, so WHEN I get brave enough to redo the trim work in my boys' room, I will get a stark white, probably right off the shelf.

My hubby filled all the holes left after tearing the chair rail off, and sanded the area once it had dried. He then primed all the walls, and painted them. While he did that, I painted all the trim boards and molding (craftsman and baseboard). We then adhered the trim to the wall with hubby's nail gun, which worked like a gem!

Of course, I now want to do this in every room of our house, but it truly is a very time consuming project. It's also a hard one to justify when all the trim in our home is in near perfect condition. But, what a huge difference it has made in our daughter's room.

Remember the before

And the after

I love the subtle, cool gray walls against the soft white trim. Now, I must get busy with "decorating" the room. My daughter has picked out a lovely, contemporary aqua and white comforter set, so we will build on this and will keep you all posted!

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About Me

I'm married to the love of my life, and have three beautiful children. I'm on a mission to create a home that will "rise up to meet me" and my family each and every day. As a newly obsessed DIYer with a heartfelt passion for interior design, I love to create spaces and things that are absolutely beatiful, without breaking the bank. I also love to attempt DIY projects shared by other bloggers and give feedback about the process, and provide additional helpful hints.